According to RT, the Russian Foreign Ministry has stated that the substance used in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal may have originated from the countries studying the “Novichok” nerve agent, including the UK, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday…

“The most likely source of origin of the toxin are the countries which have been carrying out intense research on the substances from the ‘Novichok’ program, approximately since the end of the 1990s until the present time, and this project is not the creation of Russia or the Soviet Union.”

Zakharova listed the UK, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Sweden among the countries involved.

As the mainstream media pushes a “Putin did it” poisoning hoax, applying a little critical thinking will lead to some uncomfortable conclusions for western powers. Zakharova said in an interview with state broadcaster VGTRK that the US should logically “be put under question.”

“How did they come to the conclusion about a Russian ‘footprint’ if they didn’t give us those samples? Logically they shouldn’t have this substance. Which samples have they compared with to draw such a conclusion?”

“Questions arise: then, they should have samples, which they conceal, or it is a lie from start to finish.”

“If the UK prime minister and other British experts give the formula, then it will be clear which countries have been developing these agents.”

RT, reports that Zakharova’s remarks echo those of Russia’s representative at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Aleksandr Shulgin, who said the ‘Novichok’ research was taken out of the Soviet Union following its collapse. While Shulgin didn’t name where the program was smuggled, he said the source of the substance used in Salisbury is “concealed in one of the countries where this research continued and achieved certain success.”